Clogged Extruder C2

Clogged Extruder on the C2

If you find that you cannot drive filament through your heated extruder, follow these steps.

NOTE: An R2 is pictured, but the process is the same for the C2.

1. Start by heating your extruder 10 to 20°C hotter than the recommended working temperature for the material you're using.

This is ~210°C for PLA, or ~245°C for ABS

2. Remove the extruder cover.

3. If a piece of filament is exposed beneath the extruder and above the extruder gear try pulling it out using a pair of pliers. If that does not work, try to drive the filament down slightly and then try pulling up again.

4. If no filament is exposed try inserting a loose piece of filament and driving it through.

5. If the previous step does not fix your clog, you might need to remove your hotend.

First remove the magnetic plate.

And loosen the set screw that keeps the hotend in place. Pull the hotend out. Caution, be sure to only grab the hotend the fins, the heat block at the bottom will be hot.

6. If there is a piece of filament exposed out the top of the extruder, carefully hold the extruder by the fins and use pliers to try and remove the filament. Do this while the hotend is still heated and plugged in. Again, use caution when handeling the heat sink fins, bas they may be hot!

7. If, instead of exposed filament, you see that the clog is truncated to the point where you cannot grip it, use something metal with a pointed end like a screw driver or allen wrench to try and push it through. Keep the extruder plugged in and heated up during this process. If the filament budges even a little and moves inward, you should then then be able to use the filament loading wizard to clear the old filament while loading another spool.

Still not working?

If these steps don't solve your problem, make sure that all your wires are plugged in correctly.

Not Heating up enough

Make sure all of your wiring is plugged in and firmly mounted in its correct brackets.

Nozzle Wires should be plugged into the correct terminals on the underside of the extruder.

Wires should be plugged in and seated correctly on the top electronics board at the top of the extruder.

Material stuck below the Drive Gear

If your motor shaft is turning, but the drive gear is not, it means you need to tighten down your drive gear.

To do this, turn off your machine and remove the extruder cover.

Next, unscrew the extruder tensioner cover with a screwdriver.

Take the allen wrench that came in your tool kit, and unscrew the bolt connecting the extruder tensioner to the extruder.

Once that is off, go ahead and use the smaller allen wrench to unscrew the drive gear set screw loose.

From here, you can use the tweezers that came in your tool box to grab onto the filament that is stuck. Be sure to heat up the hotend before trying to pull out the filament.

Hotend fan is not on

If your hotend fan is not on (the third fan on the back of the extruder), then it is most likely your hotend isnt being cooled enough and will jam your nozzle. The fan is most likely unplugged.

Take the red and black fan wires, and look for the terminal plug that is empty on the back underside of the extruder.